NORTH BERWICK, Scotland (AP) – Collin Morikawa was one round away from reaching No. 1 in the world, staked to a five-shot lead in the Bahamas and needing only to win.
Seven months later, No. 1 feels like a mile away.
Morikawa shot 76 in the final round last December and began the new year thinking so much about it that he started going in the wrong direction. He hasn’t won, and really hasn’t come particularly close until the U.S. Open last month.
“I think that might have played a factor in how I was performing beginning of the year,” Morikawa said Wednesday at the Scottish Open. “What I cared about was trying to get to No. 1 in the world.”
He now is No. 4 but still so far from Scottie Scheffler that even wins at the Scottish Open and the British Open next week might not be enough to catch him.